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Campaign to educate thousands of Indigenous students

TIM PALMER: A campaign that places Indigenous students in private schools and university colleges is to be massively expanded.

The Australian Indigenous Education Foundation has announced plans to educate 7,000 more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at boarding schools and university residential colleges across the country.

The new $100 million campaign, funded by government and the private sector, has already given scholarships and support to 2,000 Indigenous pupils.

More than 90 per cent of the students completed Year 12.

Social affairs reporter, Sally Sara:

SALLY SARA: It's a program which puts disadvantaged and privileged students together.

The Australian Indigenous Education Foundation provides scholarships for Indigenous children to attend some of the top boarding schools in Australia.

Chief executive Andrew Penfold says it's not the solution to all the problems in Indigenous education, but it's a much needed source of opportunity.

ANDREW PENFOLD: We are not suggesting that this is for everybody. We don't think that all Indigenous children should go to boarding schools.

But we do know that we've got great results and proven outcomes and we want to build on those and meet some of the demand from Indigenous mothers and children and families and communities across the country to have access to these great schools, and that's why we are here doing this today.

SALLY SARA: The Foundation began with the goal of raising $44 million from private and government funding to educate 2,000 Indigenous students.

It was a 20-year plan, but it was achieved in just two-and-a-half years.

Ninety per cent of children in the program have gone on to successfully complete year 12. But there is still a lot of work to do.

Andrew Penfold says the Foundation has commissioned research to gauge public confidence in the future of young Indigenous Australians.

Sarah Treacy is an Indigenous student who has benefited from the program. She was given a scholarship to travel from her hometown of Broome in Western Australia to attend a boarding school in Sydney.

She scored 85 per cent in her final result for Year 12 and is now at university studying teaching. Her grades were much higher than she expected.

SARAH TREACY: I stood up and I just looked over at Dad and I had tears in my eyes - pretty emotional. He got some tears in his eyes and just looked back at me and just - just in that moment we just hugged each other and it was just everything in that quiet. It was just like, yeah, you know, just a lot said in that moment.

So, it was worth it, you know, it just has done amazing things for us. So yeah, it was great.

SALLY SARA: But Sarah Treacy is mindful of the situation for many young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

SARAH TREACY: I mea, it's sad and me going into teaching, I want to eventually change that. Not just me alone, but us as an Indigenous community want to change that.

And I just think that through things like the AIEF (Australian Indigenous Education Foundation), it can be changed, it gives you the opportunity to take advantage of something and change your life for the future.

There's just that cycle that's going on back home, and by getting us out of that, seeing what else is out there, we can go back with a fresh outlook and try and change that cycle.

SALLY SARA: Former national president of the Labor Party, Warren Mundine, says the scholarship program works because it comes from a business, rather than a welfare model.

WARREN MUNDINE: The problem we've had in the past of Indigenous affairs is we've all had a lot of goodwill and a lot of money - and let's face it, we've spent a lot of money, but very little outcomes.

We really have to focus on the outcomes.

SALLY SARA: Mr Mundine is hopeful that one day, Australia will have an Indigenous Prime Minister.

But he concedes it may be a long process.

WARREN MUNDINE: That's a challenge for us now. It's not for us to go and pick someone to do that - it's to create the environment for a number of people to say, "wow, we can do this".